Ohio State football: John Kampf's 10 points for the Nebraska game

10. A big question going into this season was whether Coach Urban Meyer could win with Jim Tressel's players. At issue wasn't the caliber of player, because talent was never an issue during Tressel's tenure. The question was whether Meyer could win by taking players who were recruited to play one system and plugging them into a different set.

9. This doesn't have anything to do with defense, but rather offense. The players who were recruited by Tressel and his staff were by and large brought in to play more of a conventional pro-style offense -- two-back, tight end type of stuff. It doesn't always work when players are asked to go from running one type of offense to a polar opposite set.

8. The answer to the big question is yes, Meyer is able to win with players brought in for a different purpose. But to Meyer's credit, he has tweaked things some so as to accentuate the strengths of the players he has. He hasn't tried to jam square pegs into round holes and basically say, "Look, this is the offense I ran at Florida and we're going to run it no matter what your strengths are." He has adapted to his personnel.

7. A few times in the past couple weeks has Meyer alluded to such an adaptation, such as Monday when Meyer said, "We're not what we want to be. I think that's rather obvious. We're not built for that yet. So our job is to go find a way to win a game. If that means ham and egg and doing whatever we have to do, that's who we are. So we're not this high flying, high octane offense yet. We're working awfully hard to become that."

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6. In the meantime, don't be surprised if Ohio State does more of what it did in the final four minutes of the game against Michigan State -- run the ball with Carlos Hyde hammering away between the tackles and Braxton Miller pulling it and skirting outside. When Jordan Hall went down with a knee injury, OSU spent the second half in that type of mindset and it resulted in a victory.

5. Ohio State should continue to hang its hat on the running game that it used last Saturday for 204 yards against Michigan State. The quick passes to the flat to Corey "Philly" Brown are technically passes, but are a function of the running game, as well, and are similar to pitch sweeps in the hopes of getting outside, making someone miss and breaking a big-gainer.

4. Smith didn't break any big-gainers against the Spartans on his 12 catches, and Meyer joked about it, saying, "Yeah, he's allowed to make a guy miss once in a while." If Brown does that and goes for a touchdown or a big gainer, then that serves OSU's purposes well. If not, then the 7-yards-per-catch average Brown had on those screens are just as good as drive-sustaining run plays.

3. Meyer stressed again on Tuesday the importance of taking shots downfield. It worked once for a touchdown against Michigan State. Just showing a willingness to make that throw can keep defenses honest. And there are good enough playmakers on the outside to make things happen now and then in the passing game. OSU probably doesn't have the guns on the outside to turn games into a pass-a-thon, but they can be effective with their throws.

2. The second half at Ohio State might have convinced OSU's staff, "this is what we are." Meyer has said a number of times his offense's running game isn't that different than conventional run plays. They are just run out of the shotgun formation. And right now, that is what Ohio State is doing best. There will come a time when Meyer has the "high-flying, high-octane" offense of which he spoke earlier this week, but he will need a few recruiting classes to bring in those types of players.

1. Meyer knows what he has with this team, and it was put on display in the second half -- particularly in the last four minutes -- against Michigan State. The Buckeyes need that type of performance against a hard-nosed Nebraska team. Prediction: Ohio State 20, Nebraska 17